Coarsify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To make something rougher in texture or less refined in quality; to reduce fineness or smoothness in appearance or character; to render something crude or less polished
2. To increase the graininess or harshness of a surface or material; to diminish elegance or softness in style or form; to transform an element into a more unrefined or rugged state
3. To cause an object or concept to become less delicate or more rugged; to degrade refinement or subtlety in texture or manner; to modify something so that it loses smoothness and gains a harsher feel or look

Etymology: "Coarsify" is a transparent formation: the adjective "coarse" plus the suffix "-ify," which turns a quality into an action, so the verb means roughly "to make coarse." The suffix comes through Old French "-ifier" from Latin "-ificare," from "facere," "to make," the same root behind "fact" and "factory." "Coarse" itself is of uncertain origin. It may be connected to "course" in the old sense of ordinary or common quality, which would make a coarse thing literally a thing of the common run. Whatever its ancestry, the verb simply reverses refinement: a fabric, a voice, or a manner that has lost its smoothness has been coarsified.

Synonyms: roughen, coarse, roughen up

Antonyms: smooth, refine, polish